A year after Quincy woman disappears, billboards look to spark tips

A year after she disappeared, Evelin Valibayova’s face will be seen again around Quincy and Boston this week, on missing person billboard signs being sponsored by the district attorney’s office and billboard company Clear Channel

By Jack Encarnacao

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Jack Encarnacao

Posted Aug. 15, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 15, 2012 at 3:02 PM

By Jack Encarnacao

Posted Aug. 15, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Aug 15, 2012 at 3:02 PM

QUINCY

» Social News

Evelin Valibayova became something of a social butterfly after she arrived in the United States from her native Azerbaijan some three years ago. Whether at the Cambridge restaurant where she worked or on social media and Skype, the 24-year-old was always within reach.

That’s why it so alarmed her friends and family when Valibayova, in the middle of moving from her apartment on Hodges Avenue in Quincy to Allston-Brighton, was suddenly unreachable last summer.

She was last seen leaving work on July 16, 2011 and stepping off the North Quincy MBTA Red Line platform on her way home. There’s evidence she was on the phone and Internet in her apartment that night.

The next day, she didn’t sign on to Skype for her routine video chat with her mother in Azerbaijan.

“We’re just kind of at a loss, somebody dropping off the radar screen like that, someone that had been in touch with so many people,” Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey said. “It’s disturbing.”

Valibayova’s face will be seen again around Quincy and Boston this week, next to the word “DISAPPEARED” on billboards created by Morrissey’s office on space donated by Clear Channel.

The billboards will be situated at the Neponset River Bridge and Southern Artery in Quincy, Route 3A in Weymouth and Blue Hill Avenue in Mattapan. Production costs were paid with drug forfeiture money.

“It’s been a year since she’s been missing, there’s been no sighting of her,” Quincy Police Chief Paul Keenan said. “We can hardly help to think that foul play may be involved.”

After the report of her disappearance, a collection of Valibayova’s personal effects – including a brown shoulder bag, wallet, papers, a cell phone and her MBTA card – were found dumped in the Dorchester/Mattapan area.

Police are looking to identify men who are shown on surveillance cameras after using Valibayova’s MBTA Charlie Card card at the Ashmont Red Line station about week after she disappeared. Morrissey said the card users are not necessarily suspects in Valibayova’s disappearance, but may have valuable information.

“We’d love to talk to them,” he said. “Maybe they saw someone who dumped the stuff.”

Valibayova left important papers in her Quincy apartment, and there was no signs of forced entry into the residence, Morrissey said.

“In the course of this investigation, we have developed evidence that leads us to believe that she met with foul play in her Hodges Avenue apartment,” Morrissey said.

Valibayova’s roommate had recently moved out to take a job in Michigan. Investigators have talked to that roommate, who Morrissey said provided helpful information.

“She was essentially alone and vulnerable,” Morrissey said. “(The roommate) indicated that she had made arrangements to move.”

Page 2 of 2 - Investigators found Valibayova made a $3,600 down payment on an apartment she was going to sublet in Allston-Brighton in September, and had started to pack.

Police went to her apartment after her boyfriend could not locate her. Her boyfriend was not living in the state at the time of her disappearance, Morrissey said, and added that he’s been “forthright and cooperative” and has pressed investigators to solve the case.

In addition to the Area 4 Restaurant in Cambridge, Valibayova also worked on Martha’s Vineyard and had friends there that police have spoken to, Keenan said.

Morrissey said he grew up in an area where Valibayova was living and considers it “a very safe neighborhood.”

“We’re a year out and it’s a good chance to remind everybody that this case is still active,” he said. “Talk to us if you saw or heard anything, even if you do not know how it might fit in with this disappearance. ”